December 7, 2005
Box Score
Carson, CA - The Toros offense faltered in the second half, allowing Azusa Pacific to complete a come from behind women's basketball win 72-68 Wednesday night in the Torodome. In the loss sophomore Alana Bailey (Altadena, CA/John Muir HS) recorded her second double-double of the young season with 13 points and 10 rebounds. With the loss the Toros fall to 2-2 and the Cougars improve to 5-3.
CSUDH came out stiff to begin the game, turning the ball over three out of their first four possessions, which allowed the visiting Cougars to jump out to an early 13-5 lead.
After a couple more turnovers and continued cold shooting the Toros began to find their offense. Ree Brown (Torrance, CA/South Torrance HS) hit a baseline jumper followed by a three-point shoot by Adiana Vega-Howard (Covina, CA/Northview HS) to cut the lead to three at the 10:57 mark.
The Toros would continue to chip away at the lead and would grab their first lead of the game on layup by Danielle Rodgers (Rosemead, CA/Nogales HS) to gain a one-point advantage at 17-16. Jessica Liang (Alhambra, CA/Mark Keppel HS) would hit a three on the Toros next time down the floor as CSUDH begin to widen the gap between the two teams.
APU would make a run with four minuets left in the half and cut the lead to just two, on a pair of free throws by Ashley Oakes.
The Toros would cut the Cougars run short and push the lead eight with under a minuet to go. Not wanting to go into the locker room quietly, the Oaks would grab an offensive rebound after a missed free throw and go right back up and score. Their defense would then cause a Toro turnover and Jaclyn Rice would end the first half scoring with a jump shot to bring APU within four at 37-33.
The offensive burst of the visitors at the end of the first half seemed to be cooled by the intermission, while the Toros came out in a groove. Over the first five minutes of play the Toros would extend their lead to 10 on a layup by Bailey. However, from that point on the Toros offense would slowly fade.
The Toros lead would fall to six on a three by Sarah Leathers, to four on a jump shot by Alyssa Ferdaszewski, to two on a layup by Leathers and finally to one on a free throw by Leathers.
Not wanting to let the APU comeback to be complete, Vega-Howard would try and jump-start the Toros sleeping offense with a layup to bring the lead back to three. The Cougars would respond with a layup of their own and a three point shot to build a two-point lead with a little over five minuets left to play.
The Toros would try to keep up and take the lead twice in the next minuet of play; however, the APU would match any offensive output by the Toros and regain the lead. APU would then build a six-point lead at 68-62 with just over two and half minuets left to play as the Toros offense faltered.
With the APU seemly running away with the game, the Toros would make one last charge, cutting to lead to just one on a three point play by Liang with two minuets left. However, that last charge seemed to be all the Toros had, and the visiting Cougars would seal the game on a pair of free throws by Lindsay West.
APU was led offensively by Ferdaszewski's game high 19 points and five rebounds. The only other player in double figures for the Cougars was Lindsay West with 12 points and six rebounds.
Offensively for the Toros, Tameka Blue (Watsonville, CA/Santa Cruz HS) narrowly missed out on a triple double, recording 15 points (moving her into sixth place all-time in scoring), nine assists, and eight rebounds. Also scoring in double figures for the Toros was Liang with 10 points and five assists.
The Toros continue their non-conference home stand this Saturday, December 10th against San Diego Christian College (formally Christian Heritage), tip off at 7:00pm.
